How much do roofers make in Tennessee in 2026?

The median roofer in Tennessee earns $45,690 a year, which works out to about $21.97 an hour based on a standard 2,080-hour work year. That's the midpoint — half the roofers in the state earn more, half earn less. If you're just starting out or working for a smaller residential contractor, you're more likely landing closer to the 25th percentile at $38,130 a year, or roughly $18.33 an hour. Experienced hands and those working on commercial or industrial projects tend to push toward the 75th percentile at $48,940 a year, around $23.53 an hour. These numbers come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025.

That $10,810 spread between the 25th and 75th percentile isn't trivial. On an hourly basis, it's the difference between $18.33 and $23.53 — more than five dollars an hour. Over a full year, a roofer at the top quartile takes home roughly $10,800 more than one at the bottom quartile. The factors that move you up that range are experience, the type of roofing work you do, and who you work for.

Roofing in Tennessee covers a wide range of work. Residential re-roofing — stripping shingles and laying new ones — is the bread and butter for most roofers in the state, particularly in the high-growth suburban rings around Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. These metro areas have seen steady residential construction and storm-damage repair work, which keeps demand for roofers consistent year-round. Commercial flat roofing — TPO, EPDM, modified bitumen — typically pays better than residential shingle work and is more concentrated around larger metro contractors.

Specialty work pushes pay higher. Roofers who install and service metal roofing systems, slate, or tile are harder to find and can command rates above the 75th percentile. The same goes for roofers with OSHA 30 certification or those who can run a crew and read a basic project plan. Contractors running multi-family or commercial jobs actively look for workers who can do more than swing a hammer, and they pay for it.

Weather matters in roofing, and Tennessee's climate is a mixed bag. Hot, humid summers drive heavy schedules from spring through fall. Storm seasons — particularly hail and wind events common across Middle and West Tennessee — generate emergency repair work that can mean overtime pay and sustained demand for months after a major event. That seasonal surge is one reason roofing can pay more in a given year than the base annual figures suggest, especially for roofers who are available to move quickly when work spikes.

No union scale data is available for roofers in Tennessee. Most roofers in the state work for non-union residential and commercial contractors. Pay is typically set by the employer based on experience, the complexity of the work, and local market conditions. Some contractors offer piece-rate or production-based pay structures for shingle installation, which can push weekly earnings above what an hourly rate alone would suggest — but it also means earnings vary with the pace and volume of jobs on the schedule.

If you're comparing offers or deciding whether to take on a specialty or a move to a larger contractor, the BLS data gives you a solid anchor. A straight residential shingle job paying $18 an hour is at the low end of the Tennessee market. Anything at $22 or above is at or above the median, and clearing $24 an hour puts you in the upper tier for this state. Use those benchmarks when you're negotiating, not guesses.

TradesPays will update these figures as new BLS OEWS data becomes available. All numbers on this page are sourced directly from BLS OEWS May 2025.